Page:China Under the Empress Dowager - ed. Backhouse and Bland - 1914.pdf/298

 and the gods of the soil, but we cannot forget that duty of filial piety and service which we owe to our sacred and aged mother, the Empress Dowager.”

The policy of reform is now clearly enunciated and outlined as an essential condition of the future government of the Empire. Provincial and metropolitan officials are ordered to proceed at once to join the Court, in order that the reform programme may be speedily initiated; the Yangtsze Viceroys are thanked for preserving order in accordance with “treaty stipulations,” and Chinese converts to Christianity are once more assured of the Throne’s protection and good-will.

These utterances of the Throne, which lost nothing in their presentation to the respective Powers by Prince Cling and his colleagues, soon produced the desired effect, and reassured the Throne and its advisers as to their per- sonal safety. Accordingly, early in September, we find all the Viceroys and high officials of the Provinces uniting in a Memorial, whereby the Court is urged to return at once to the capital, advice which would never have been given had there been any question of violent measures being taken by the Allics against the Empress Dowager. At this time the question of the future location of the Chinese capital was being widely discussed at Court, and there was much conflicting advice on the subject. The Viceroys’ memorial was drafted by Yiian Shih-k’ai and forwarded by him to Liu K'un-yi, at Nanking, for trans- mission; it definitely blames the Boxers and their leaders for the ruin which had come upon China, and rejoices at the thought that “the perplexities which embarrassed Your Majesties in the past have now given place to a clearer understanding of the situation.” Noting the possibility of the Court’s leaving ‘I’ai-yuan fu and making ‘‘a further progress” westwards to Hsi-an, the memorialists deplored the idea and proceeded to show that such a step would be unwise as well as inconvenient.

After referring 1o the faet that the cradle of the Dynasty and the tombs of its ancestors are situated near Peking, and that it is geographically best fitted to be the centre of